The Great Escape
by Loopstagirl
Summary: Surely there were only so many places he could get into? But then again, this was John. With him, there was no telling. Happy birthday, Sam1!


**Disclaimer: I own nothing at all. If I did, I wouldn't be writing fanfiction.**

**I know I'm really late with Out of Your Mind, it's coming, honest!**

**HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SAM1! Have an absolutely fantastic day and thank you for being such an amazing friend! Love ya loads!**

"But…"

Jeff tried not to groan at the pouting face looking up at him. They had been hoping that Virgil would just carry on colouring in while Lucy took Scott and Gordon into town. The baby was all ready to be placed in the car, fast asleep for once, and Scott was carefully tying his shoes now that he knew how. His two year old brother, however, just watched him with the utmost look of betrayal.

"Wanna go too…"

"Sweetheart, you can stay here with Daddy. Johnny is staying here too, you can have fun rather than coming around the boring shops with us. You don't want to look for school shoes for Scott now, do you?"

Virgil nodded energetically, hoping that was the right answer for him to be allowed to go on the outing as well. He pushed himself upright from where he had been lying across the floor, a crayon still clutched tightly in his hand as he reached up to his mother.

"I go too! I need shoes!"

Jeff wondered whether his wife would notice if he just took Scott himself and ran. His oldest son was certainly excited about having to get some new clothes for school. Virgil, on the other hand, had yet to understand what they were telling him. Just because Scott was going to school didn't mean Virgil was as well, something the younger brother wasn't quite prepared to accept.

"You have some…"

"I'm ready, Mom."

"Gordon's in his carrier, can you take him out to the car, love?" Lucy crouched down in front of Virgil, slowly nudging him back around towards his colouring.

"How about we go and find you some shoes tomorrow?"

"Scotty come too?"

"Scotty's going to work with Daddy tomorrow. Just you and me, how does that sound, baby? We'll leave Johnny and Gordon with Grandma and we'll go and find you some nice grown up ones? Does that sound okay?" Virgil seemed to bite his lip, studying his mother closely. He glanced towards the stairs, but not seeing Scott any longer made up his mind for him and he nodded.

"'Kay."

Deciding to make a quick get-away, Lucy swiftly strode towards the door. Scott had the car door open and Gordon balanced on the seat. He wasn't yet tall enough to strap the carrier in properly, but his mother knew that wouldn't stop him from trying. Before she could reach the door, Jeff slipped out behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist and kissing the side of her neck.

"You know he is going to hold you to that?" Lucy grinned, turning and pecking his nose.

"Maybe. But you're the one who is going to have to hear all about it while I'm in town. We'll be back in time for lunch, but they can have some fruit if they get hungry. Ignore John's big eyes when he quietly asks for chocolate, he can't have any until later."

"I think I can handle those two." Jeff reassured her, giving her a small push towards the door. "Now go on before Scott decides that he can drive himself in as well."

The look of alarm that shot across his wife's face showed she realised that Jeff was only half joking and she hurried out of the house towards the car. Jeff chuckled lightly, turning to shut the door only to realise that there was a small figure standing by his leg, one hand clutching onto his jeans tightly.

"You going to wave them off, Virg?" Virgil nodded. Jeff grinned, taking the crayon out of his son's mouth and lifting him into his arms so that he could see better. As the car pulled out of the driveway, the father found himself regretting that when his son almost punched him in the nose with his energetic wave.

"Daddy?"

"Yes, son?"

"I'm gonna have new shoes!" Kicking the door shut behind him, Jeff carried Virgil back through to the lounge and put him back down by his colouring book.

"Are you?" Virgil nodded, already beginning to pull the book towards him.

"Just like Scotty's!"

"I see. You be a good boy then and you'll get shoes just like Scott's." Turning towards the kitchen with an aim of getting a coffee, Jeff only made it two steps before a whine sounded behind him. Virgil was looking up at him with a hurt expression, hand clutching at the air. Jeff could only blink at him for a moment before realising that he still had the crayon he taken from him. Smiling, Jeff gave it back before heading through, shaking his head fondly. Scott would have just changed colour if he was missing the right one. John might have gone for the right colour, but it wouldn't have been as neat as his little brother's.

Thinking of John made Jeff stop and abruptly change direction again. The last time he had seen his son, he had been curled up in his mother's chair with a book almost as big as him. But he had stayed amazingly quiet throughout that whole exchange. Over the past week, John had taken it upon himself to constantly inform Virgil that he wasn't old enough for school, so the fact that he had stayed silent throughout his mother leaving set off warning bells in Jeff's mind. Quickly retracing his steps, he hurried through to the lounge again.

Virgil completely ignored him, his legs swinging back and forth as he carefully followed the lines on his picture, humming to himself. But for once, Jeff wasn't distracted by the toddler. Instead, the empty chair held his attention.

"John?"

Silence met his call and Jeff found his heart miss a beat.

"John!" Spinning around, Jeff forced himself to be rational. He was only four, he couldn't have gotten very far. He hadn't been anywhere near the door when Lucy had left, Jeff knew that one of them would have seen him. He had to be in the house somewhere. Not even that, he had to be downstairs. The stair gates might still be in place to stop Virgil trying to tackle the stairs on his own, but John had yet to work out how to open them on his own.

At least, that was what Jeff believed.

"Virgy, have you seen your brother?"

"Shoes!"

"No, Virg, John. Have you seen John?"

"Shoes?"

"No, Johnny stayed here, Virgil. Scott and Gordon went to get shoes, not John."

"Gordy gets shoes and Virgy doesn't?"

"John, Virgil. Have you seen where John is?" Virgil scowled and shook his head, deliberately turning back to what he was doing and ignoring his father. Knowing the boy was most likely in a mood with him now, Jeff rolled his eyes but glanced around the room again for the older brother.

"Johnny? Where are you, kiddo?" Meandering out of the lounge and back through to the kitchen, Jeff decided to see if the little boy had decided he was hungry. There was something almost scarily independent about John, despite his tender age. Scott might have got it into his head that he was going to look out for his brothers, but John had decided that he was going to look after himself.

The kitchen was empty as well, however. Adamant that John couldn't have gone far, Jeff set the kettle boiling while he glanced around.

"John, where are you?" There was no rustle, no giggle that gave away he was trying to hide. Still convinced that he couldn't have gone far, Jeff wandered out of the kitchen and into the hallway, beginning to search all of the obvious places as he did so. The hall was clear, as was the coat cupboard. Jeff found himself frowning when there was no small blond child hidden under the coats, half convinced that was where John would have been. A glance back in the lounge showed that only Virgil was there. Pulling the door shut to make sure he couldn't lose another son, Jeff knew he was going to have to widen his search. Or, at least, start searching more thoroughly the places that a four year old could get into.

Half an hour later, however, and Jeff had completely forgotten about having a coffee. He had searched every place that he could think John might be hiding and hadn't yet managed to find his son. The longer he searched, the more frantic he became and the more times he went back to check Virgil was where he had been left. Virgil didn't seem to notice what was going on around him apart from giving his father an incredulous look when Jeff started looking behind the curtains. Just as he thought he had run out of places to look and was beginning to consider phoning Lucy just to check she hadn't had a last minute change of plan and taken John with her, Jeff noticed something. Something he didn't think should be possible, but considering it was John, he wasn't surprise.

The stair gate was open.

Taking the stairs two at a time, the frantic search continued. The room John shared with Scott was empty apart from John's bear sitting in the middle of the floor. Picking it up and dusting it down, Jeff stared at the toy for a moment. His father had given it to them when John had been born, the last grandson he had got to meet. John never went anywhere without that bear, even if it was just to his grandmother's for the day. Now Jeff knew that John had to be around somewhere, the bear would have gone as well if John had been planning one of his little adventures. Scott's had been bad enough, but John seemed to be able to get into places that even Jeff couldn't get into.

Putting the toy onto John's bed, Jeff started hunting the rest of the rooms. His nerves simply increased as each place turned out to be clear. John simply was nowhere to be seen.

Another half an hour of searching revealed John didn't seem to be upstairs either. Jeff's heart was pounding hard as he realised that he was genuinely running out of places that John could have gone. It no longer seemed to be a matter of John hiding, he had gone. Hearing Virgil whining from downstairs, Jeff made sure to shut every gate behind him again on his way down. At least if they opened again, he knew John was in the house.

Virgil was rubbing his eyes sleepily as Jeff opened the lounge door again. He looked up at his father with big eyes, holding out his arms. Obliging, Jeff scooped Virgil up, adamant that he wasn't going to be letting go until he had locate the toddler's older brother. Holding Virgil close, Jeff glanced out of the window, biting his lip.

"Where is your big brother, Virg?"

"Scotty?"

"No, not Scott. For once I know where he is. But where is John?"

"Tree." Jeff simply shook his head. One glance at Virgil's picture showed that was what he had been in the process of colouring in when he had decided he was tired. Blowing out a long breath, Jeff knew how deeply he was frowning. He was seriously running out of options now. Keeping Virgil in his arms, he moved back through to the hall, partly wanting to check the gates to see whether John was around and partly just hoping his son was going to appear.

John wasn't in the hallway and Jeff decided that he was going to have to phone either Lucy or his mother. He wasn't sure who would be the worst to tell. But before he could take a step towards the phone, Virgil squirmed in his arms.

"Tree!"

"Not now, Virgil." It took a great deal of effort on Jeff's behalf to not snap at his young son, but worry was clawing at his mind and settling heavily in his stomach. He knew he had mostly likely brought it on himself, the fact that he had told his wife he would be fine with John and Virgil coming back to haunt him.

"No, Daddy. Tree."

"What?"

"Johnny. Tree." Jeff could no longer ignore the insistence in Virgil's voice. As he twisted in order to face him, Jeff frowned. He was sure he could feel a light breeze coming from somewhere. A quick glance in either direction showed him both the front and back doors were shut, and as far as he was aware there were no windows open, it was too cold.

"Virgil, listen to me carefully," realising that his son seemed to actually have an idea of where his brother was, Jeff hoisted him around until he was looking the boy in the eyes.

"We're going to play a game, okay?" Virgil nodded happily, squirming already. Jeff forced a smile onto his face.

"Right, here is what you have to do. I want you to point as fast as you can to where John is, do you think you can do that?" Virgil nodded again, not seeming to want to wait for Jeff to say go. His hand shot out to one side, pointing straight out of the window. Jeff frowned, looking out there himself.

"Tree." Virgil declared triumphantly. To start with, Jeff couldn't see anything. But he was sure that if he squinted, a mop of blond hair was just visible at the bottom of the old oak. The same tree, he thought with a groan, that John often headed towards when they were out in the garden. Shutting his eyes with a groan, Jeff carefully followed where the breeze was coming from.

His office door was shut, it always was when the boys were around, they knew they weren't allowed in there. But as Jeff let his fingers ghost across the handle, he also knew that there was no way it was him who had left the sticky fingerprints there. Opening it, he gaped at the low window being wide open, his office chair pushed in front of it. For a long moment, Jeff could only stare. How was that even possible? The door had been tightly shut, there was no way that…

He stopped that thought right there. Of course John would be able to open it, he was the one who had mastered the stair gates as well. How on earth he had managed to move the chair, climb up on it and get the window open in the time it took Lucy to leave, Jeff had no idea. Moving as fast as he could, he practically ran into the kitchen and dumped Virgil into his high chair, making sure to strap him in so that he at least knew where one son was while he took off after the other. Virgil let out a grizzle of surprise, but Jeff ignored him as he unlocked the door and ran for the tree.

"John!"

"Daddy?" Jeff nearly cried in relief as his son's voice answered him. He sprinted to the tree, wondering if this was the fastest he had ever moved apart from being in a rocket. Just as he reached the tree, he skidded to a stop. John was curled up in the roots, the same book he had been reading back in the house next to him. The book was shut and John had his arms wrapped around his legs, looking up at his father miserably.

"What are you doing out here, buddy?" Determined that he wasn't going to lose his temper, Jeff crouched down next to the boy. John chewed his lip nervously, glancing from the book to his father.

"Magic tree," he whispered, causing Jeff to yet again have a frown on his face as he glanced from his son to the book. Flicking it open, his eyes fell on the illustration of a tree with a door in it and he groaned. They had always thought that encouraging the boys to read as much as they could would be a good thing. It seemed they had underestimated the type of books that John would pick.

"Come on, you. No magic trees out here. You're freezing, Johnny." Scooping him into his arms, Jeff only bent down to get the book when John whined. With it tucked under his arm and John taking up the rest of his grip, he had to use his hip to nudge the back door open again. Putting John down, he made sure that he locked it before firmly holding his son's hand and walking him through to the kitchen.

"Daddy?"

"Hmm?"

"Can I have choc'lit now?" Remembering Lucy's words, Jeff glanced down at him in order to say no. But he took one look at the big eyes staring back up at him and felt his resolve crumble. Bending down in front of the boy, he put the book to one side and took both of John's hands in his own.

"I'll do you a deal. I'll let you have some chocolate if you don't tell your mother. And if you don't tell her about going to find the magic tree. Sound good?" John titled his head to one side as he clearly weighed up what his father was offering before solemnly nodding.

"Okay, Daddy." Wondering if John would be the brother to follow him into business, Jeff straightened up and continued through to the kitchen. Making a mental note to put a lock on his office door, Jeff decided it really was time for that coffee.

Only, when he got through to the kitchen, he found himself coming to a sudden stop.

"Johnny!" Virgil seemed happy enough to see his big brother. From where he was on the floor, clutching onto the table leg as an aid to keep him upright.

Jeff decided that he really didn't want to know.


End file.
